The cryptocurrency industry has seen its fair share of updates and developments that have propelled it into the mainstream stratosphere. One of the most popular personalities in this growing industry is Mr. Herbert Sim, better known as ‘The Bitcoin Man’. He is also the founder of Crypto Chain University– the world’s first repository for blockchain and crypto research papers. Sim’s credentials also include being the Chairman of FortuneZ, a portal for iGaming, crypto and forex news.
Mr. Sim made news recently when he joined the BeFaster team as an investor and consultant. Tron Weekly caught up with him and was able to pick up his brain on the questions which we all wanted to ask. The interview covered all the topics from his ‘origin story’ to his vision for the future of the cryptocurrency industry.
The past few weeks have been a tumultuous period of time, not only in the financial space but also in global societies. This has also been a time when new technologies have come to the fore in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic.
During the interview, Mr. Sim noted that digital technologies need to be the need of the hour as countries who do not take that path may be left behind.
China is currently leading in terms of technology like 5 G technology and will soon be launching its digital Yuan, Mr. Sim said. The former Huobi Global Operations Director first became fascinated by the idea of decentralization at Oklahoma City University. It was at uni that he leaned toward Punycode by involving himself with ‘T.com’ by the unicode / punyhcode of xnv6d.com. The Bitcoin Man was also generous enough to share his views of the industry and how far it had come since its inception. According to him:
“So much has changed over the years. When I first started off, it was difficult to get your hands on Bitcoin, there were no exchanges then. It was all OTC, and directly from miners per se. As a firm believer in Bitcoin then, all I could do back then from 2010-2013, was sitting on the sidelines, compiling research papers from an academic angle, in the hopes that as more people got access to the knowledge, then legitimacy and credibility will come too.”
Herbert Sim also gave us a picture of his experience in the cryptocurrency industry when things went awry and the markets crashed. His main point of reference was the infamous Mt.Gox hack, which he recounted as:
“And then 2014 MT Gox happened, and the entire industry’s credibility crashed even further. At that time, I was hit very badly as well and switched my focus to another start-up I founded called, WardrobeTrendsFashion – High Fashion & Luxury online magazine, which was acquired in 2017. It was sometime in 2016, that I founded TheBitcoinMan.com, simply to house my digital illustration work of Cryptocurrency, and Blockchain. And eventually became known as the ‘Bitcoin Man’ to many within the industry.
The Bitcoin Man then talked about his latest venture, becoming part of the BeFaster team. He stated that there were many factors that led him to come on board, including the business idea, the market potential as well as the technology used. Mr. Sim did not fail to mention that another reason for his entry was the passion and drive he saw in the founders. He claimed BeFaster was literally going to be faster with plans in the pipeline to draw more investors.
The differences between the Fintech world of the East and the West were another main point of discussion. From 2013 to 2017, more than 80% of the world’s cryptocurrency trading volume came from China, with the crypto winter of 2018 redistributing some of that concentration to the west. Bitcoin Man has urged new members to join the industry and keep an eye out for regulation.
